Raised on the Redskins, Dan Snyder got a little too emotionally close to the team. To make a successful business out of the team, he had to step back a little.

My father taught me to love the Washington Redskins. Every fall we spent Sunday afternoons at the old Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in the nation's capital, idolizing Sonny Jurgensen and Art Monk and other stars of yesteryear. The unofficial mascot, politically incorrect in a full-feathered headdress, would whip up the crowd with a war dance up and down the steep stadium stairs. Today, seven years after my father's death, the four season tickets he first purchased in 1963 are in my hands, and I await the day when my young daughters will accompany me to the games.

Daniel Snyder's father taught him to love the Redskins, too--so much so that he acquired the team and the stadium. People close to him say he grows emotional when he speaks of how his own father worshipped the Skins; Gerald Snyder was a former writer for United Press International and National Geographic who died a year ago at age 69. Dan Snyder, 39, is married, with two young daughters and a son. "I had to have a boy to take to football games," he tells his friends.

In college Snyder started a charter travel service and by the age of 19 had earned his first million. He later launched direct-marketing firm Snyder Communications, which approached $1 billion in sales in the 1990s. Then, in 1999, he took on $495 million of debt to pay $750 million to buy the team (and the stadium) of his childhood fantasy, selling his marketing firm a year later for $2.3 billion. Today he has a net worth of $500 million.

Since then he has turned the Redskins into a marketing machine. With a value that FORBES estimates at $1.1 billion, the team is the richest franchise in U.S. sports and the first American team in FORBES rankings ever to clear the billion-dollar mark. Snyder has expanded the stadium to mythic proportions--it is the largest in professional football, holding 92,000--and plastered ads throughout the stadium and across a range of broadcast properties and publications. Executives eagerly fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to occupy 234 corporate suites.

Despite the 47% appreciation in the value of the Redskins since Snyder bought them, he's left a lot of money on the table because he's been too meddlesome. He's doled out huge player contracts of dubious value to aging superstars like Deion Sanders (seven years, $56 million) and hired and fired coaches with alarming frequency (five different head coaches in five years). The strategy backfired, leaving the Redskins paying on the contracts long after the players retired.

HAIL TO THE CHEIF

The Redskins lead the NFL in virtually every revenue category, thanks to a loyal and wealthy fan base.

Average ticket price

$68 ($53 NFL Average)

number of suites

234 (143)

*Attendance

667,000 (529,000)

suite revenue

$35 million ($13 mil)

sponsorship/ad revenue

$32 million ($13 mil)

concessions/parking

$11 million ($4 mil)

All figures are for 2003 season. 1Excludes club seats and
luxury-suite seats. Sources: Forbes; Team Marketing Report.

After the end of last season, when the team had only 5 wins against 11 losses, head coach Steve Spurrier was so disenchanted with working for Snyder that he quit and walked away from $15 million remaining on his five-year, $25 million contract. The Redskins have a losing record over the past five years.

To his friends, even Snyder himself now confides: "We've made some mistakes."

While most of us are scrunched on top of each other in our seats, Snyder spends home games inside the cherrywood confines of his luxurious owner's suite, smoking cigars and drinking Scotch with dignitaries and celebrity friends. "C'mon, have some fun," he urges his guests, who include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, FCC Chairman Michael Powell and former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw. But as the new season begins, Snyder is, uncharacteristically, talking very little. Shouldering the blame as the Redskins rack up losses, he has come to realize that being a lifelong fan and toting a fat checkbook aren't enough.

So Snyder has reached back into the team's past for some help, bringing coach Joe Gibbs, 63, out of retirement. The Hall of Famer had led the Redskins to three Super Bowl championships in the 1980s and early 1990s; now he will reap $28 million over five years to serve as head coach and president.

The addition of Gibbs enhances one of the country's strongest sports brands, says Marc Ganis, who heads the Chicago sports marketing firm Sportscorp Ltd. More important, it diverts the spotlight from Snyder himself. "Snyder is now experienced enough that he is comfortable having someone who has the spotlight more on them," Ganis says.

On the night when the National Football League's free-agent negotiating period officially started this spring, Gibbs began calling prospective players at one minute past midnight. A year earlier coach Spurrier was away on vacation when the free-agent negotiations started. The overbearing Snyder handled everything. Gibbs, says Vinny Cerrato, the head of football operations, "is much more involved than any of the other coaches have been."

Stock quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes for Nasdaq, at least 20 minutes for NYSE/AMEX.
U.S. indexes are delayed at least 15 minutes with the exception of Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 which are 2 minutes delayed.